TACOMA, Wash. — Two men have been charged with attacks on four utility power substations in Pierce County, Washington, officials say.
Matthew Greenwood, 32, and Jeremy Crahan, 40, have been charged with conspiracy to damage energy facilities and possession of an unregistered firearm, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
Greenwood and Crahan were arrested Saturday.
“I commend the work by the FBI to quickly identify these suspects and disrupt any future attacks on the east Pierce County power grid,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown in the news release. “We have seen attacks such as these increase in Western Washington and throughout the country and must treat each incident seriously. The outages on Christmas left thousands in the dark and cold and put some who need power for medical devices at extreme risk.”
The attacks caused about $3 million in damage and cut power off to thousands of people, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
“I am so thankful for how quickly and diligently our investigators and partners worked to bring this to a resolution,” said Richard A. Collodi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office in the news release. “This case took many of them away from their families during the holidays, but through their efforts, we have two men in custody we believe to be responsible for all four power station attacks. This demonstrates the commitment by all levels of law enforcement to protect our infrastructure and hold those accountable who put our community in danger.”
According to KIRO, the four substations that were vandalized are the Graham and Elk Plain substations, operated by Tacoma Power, and the Kapowsin and Hemlock substations, operated by Puget Sound Energy.
Power was cut off to 14,000 customers. Each attack happened during the middle of the night, said Pierce County Sheriff’s Department Spokesman Sgt. Darren Moss, Jr.
Greenwood and Crahan were identified as suspects through cellphone records and surveillance video, according to KIRO. The clothing seen in the surveillance photos was located during the search of the men’s house. FBI also seized two unregistered, short-barreled guns. One had a makeshift silencer.
Greenwood and Crahan face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to attack energy facilities and up to 10 years for possession of an unregistered firearm, KIRO reported. No further information was released.
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